This invention relates to devices and methods for practicing sports that use balls. In particular, the invention relates to simulating kicked, thrown, or headed soccer balls, or other types of balls of a similar shape such as dodge balls.
Practicing receiving passes and other pitches of a ball in soccer is difficult because it is hard to pitch balls on a repetitive basis with particular spins and delivery trajectories. Even the most skilled of players find it challenging to get a reasonable number of repetitions with the qualities required for training. Providing repetitions for an entire team would be impossible without a pitching device. As soccer and other ball sport clinics have proliferated, the demand for repetitive quality kicks has increased even further where skill training must be provided for hundreds of younger inexperienced players at one session. This quality repetition must also be available for even the most skilled of players, including professionals. Further, since soccer drills involve different positions they take place in different areas of the field requiring a device that can provide repetitive quality kicks that can be moved quickly and easily. Portability is critical. Portability and movability are also important in rolling such a device to storage sheds or to vehicles to be transported.
Currently, there are a number of devices on the market for simulating the kicking of a soccer ball for players to practice receiving kicked passes. For purposes of this disclosure, the term “soccer ball” will refer to a ball that is round shaped including a dodge ball or other round ball that is of a similar size, and the terms “kicking,” “throwing,” “pitching,” “passing” and “heading” are used interchangeably to generally describe the motion of propelling a soccer ball. Typically, soccer ball throwing devices have two spinning opposing wheels that engage the ball as it passes through the wheels and impart speed and spiral spin to the ball. These opposing wheels can be adjustably rotated in unison around a central axis to cause the ball to spin in a particular direction simulating a pass curving to the right, to the left or in a straight-ahead motion. This allows for the simulation of a right-footed kicker or a left footed kicker and the degree of spin that is imparted to the ball when it is kicked, thrown or headed.
A problem with prior art soccer ball pitching devices is that they tend to have severe drawbacks in that they do not offer a stable platform that can replicate ball flight in a reliably consistent manner over a significant number of pitches without failure.